My roommate and I are renting an apartment in Chicago. Recently, we've discovered mice in our apartment, 4 at least. My roommate and I both ...

Question

My roommate and I are renting an apartment in Chicago. Recently, we've discovered mice in our apartment, 4 at least. My roommate and I both contacted our landlord and his secretary yesterday and neither one has gotten back to us let alone done anything to resolve the matter. When do we have grounds to break the lease for unsanitary/unhealthy living conditions?

Answer

Every Chicago lease, whether or not it is subject to the Chicago Residential Landlord & Tenant Ordinance, is supposed to have a summary of the Ordinance attached to it, or somehow incorporated into it. You should become familiar with the Ordinance. Here's a link to it on the Metropolitan Tenants Organization's website:

http://www.tenants-rights.org/residential-landlord-tenant-ordinance/

You will find that rodent infestation constitutes a material failure to maintain (assuming the infestation was not caused by the tenant) and can result in termination. Look in particular at section 5-12-070, and 5-12-110. Whether your building is covered by the Ordinance is Section 5-12-020.

If your building and lease is NOT covered by the Ordinance, Illinois has a similar law called the Residential Tenants' Right to Repair Act, but it does not allow termination -- only the tenant's right to repair within stated limits.

The only other way to deal with this is to risk eviction or a rent lawsuit on the assertion that the conditions make the apartment "uninhabitable" and/or the conditions constitute a "constructive eviction" but those strategies should only be attempted with an attorney's help after defining your goals.